From Draft to Game: How I Created Snake Extreme 3D, Failed, but Didn’t Give Up — and What’s Next

Hello, dear reader!Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. In it, I would like to tell you about a project, its development, a bit about my life, and what lies ahead.

I absolutely love video games, but what I love even more is creating them or modifying existing ones. This project was primarily developed to test my skills. I’ve been deeply frustrated by the fact that my projects often don’t progress beyond rough drafts. I looked for something I could implement quickly and something I was already familiar with. The goal became Snake Extreme 3D, which tries to mimic the well-known game AxySnake. I didn’t aim for a full remake but rather a kind of rejuvenation. I thought about how to create a working environment for myself that wouldn’t derail me from the project’s implementation. Once the working environment was set up and the "plan" was in place, I set myself a deadline... 2 days! It was a weekend, and I got to work. Then, on April 10, 2024, after looking at my project in the evening, I realized it was time to release it. The game was somewhat playable. It had a bit of motivation: to reach the top 3 of best players. Yes, it was just about eating the same apple with clunky controls and a broken score counter. But it had a beginning and an end. Later, I worked on fixing bugs, and suddenly I remembered how one of my mods for Serious Sam received seasonal updates, and I thought, "Why not try that here?" I decided that the seasonal update should add something significant, and that turned out to be a beach. For the first time, the game introduced obstacles, and the visual style was drastically different from before. The two biggest new features I had never tackled before were developing an Android version and allowing simple modding (like changing the snake’s texture). This was my first experience with a project that included code for two platforms at once. My goal was also to reach a portion of the audience and get some useful feedback, like an artist displaying their paintings on the street. But... the project didn’t seem to interest anyone. Honestly, I was disheartened by the statistics, and I stopped working on the game for a while. But at the end of November, when I remembered it, I thought, "Why not try making a New Year’s update where I add more interesting things for the player?" And so, the development of the New Year’s update began... In it, I tried to create a user-friendly interface, introduce the first enemies, add pleasant visuals, and achievements. Some of my close friends liked the visual design during development and joined in working on the New Year’s update (despite having no game development experience), which made me very happy. But time passed, and the project still couldn’t attract an audience. It dawned on me: "I’m just wasting my time on a dead project." But as it turns out, I want to see it through to at least being halfway ready for release... and so begins the next challenging phase of this project, which I’ll talk about later...

I plan to release the next update on my birthday, September 27. This update will bring the following new features:

1. Split-screen for two players (PC, but possibly Android as well)
2. 5 locations, 2 of which will be familiar, and 3 will be completely unique (but I won’t spoil them for you)
3. New types of enemies (some will try to attack you)
4. Special items (health recovery, speed boosts/slows, etc.)
5. A new leaderboard (still in draft form)
6. A new camera perspective (third-person view) And much more...

After this update, I’ll observe the feedback, and if it fails to capture players’ attention, the project will be shelved indefinitely.

I’m not giving up on game development, as I have another project that I’m not ready to talk about yet. I can only hint that the game will revolve around player actions that influence the game world (but what exactly will remain a mystery).

Thank you for your attention! I hope we’ll hear from each other again!